St.Triphon Pechenga Convent

A convent of the Russian Orthodox Church at Luostari Settlement. For a long time it was the world’s northernmost monastery. The oldest monastery in the Kola Peninsula. Founded in 1533 by Reverend Triphon of Pechenga where the Mana river (now called Nama-Joki) flows into the Pechenga. After Triphon had to go in 1548, the monastic community decided on their own to move closer to the Pechenga river nouth, a place more convenient for fishing and trade.
In December 1589, the convent was attacked by a troop of Finns, Swedish subjects, who killed everyone inside and burnt the convent down. After the fire, the convent was again moved to a new location behind the Kola river. A cathedral in honour of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul waas built. However, in 1765 the nonastery was closed by a decree of Empress Catherine the Great.
Only in 1886 the Holy Synod decided to renew the monastery at the mouth of the Pechenga river where the Pechenga martyrs had died.
After the October Revolution, in the late 1920s, the monastery was destroyed. In 1997, the Russian Orthodox Church declared the monastery’s renewal. It keeps the relics of 116 martyrs who died as the convent was ruined in 1589.